


Red Sky At Morning

by Coraleeveritas



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, F/M, First Meetings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-13
Updated: 2019-05-13
Packaged: 2020-03-02 14:01:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18812359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Coraleeveritas/pseuds/Coraleeveritas
Summary: This was it, Colonel Jaime Lannister thought as he stared at the destruction unfolding down below him, burning cities and napalm skies. This really was the end of the world.





	Red Sky At Morning

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SandwichesYumYum](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SandwichesYumYum/gifts).



> I'm furious this morning and disappointed with both the show in general and myself for investing in what I should have known would never be a happy ending. This is my last finished piece and I'm throwing it out here, in honesty, just to feel some closure. I may come back to writing this pairing in time, but I don't trust myself not to write anything but over simplified good conquers evil type fairy tales right now. 
> 
> I'm gifting this to my friend Sandwiches, who keeps pulling me back from the brink both in fandom and real life. 
> 
> For any of you who've seen Firefly, I was imagining Brienne dressed like Mal Reynolds in this. If you haven't seen it, it doesn't really add or take anything away from the story.
> 
> Anything you recognise is not mine, including one or two lines from Billie Ellish's Ocean Eyes which was my original inspiration though the story took a turn away from the song's themes, but my mistakes are.

This was it, Colonel Jaime Lannister thought as he stared at the destruction unfolding down below him, burning cities and napalm skies. This really was the end of the world.

Less than a week ago he'd been fighting for a brighter future in what remained of the Westerlands armed forces, never knowing that his superior officers had already abandoned the fleet to their fate, never knowing that a general in the furthest of the northern territories was getting ready to push the button that would bring all seven kingdoms to their knees. It wasn't as if he had fought in wars against despots and dictators and deranged oligarchs before but there had always been warning signs, whispers, rumours, something that slipped out of seemingly private councils and stopped insanity from take charge.

He had done what little he could walking blindly through a minefield, but, in the end, he was powerless. The seconds after the sun disappeared in a ball of ash and smoke were some of the longest of his much too short life, but Jaime knew his last fight would be with the Stranger.

And then she arrived.

At first Jaime had laughed, wondering how the ancient superstitions of north men had been correct since a Valkyrie had come to escort him off the battlefield, though not one myth had come close to describing the woman abseiling into the fray, holding out her hand. Grim faced, armoured and armed to the teeth, in his oxygen starved delirium he fell head over heels into the depths of her ocean blue eyes.

*******

It took him nearly two days after Dr Tarly brought him back to consciousness to learn her name was Brienne Tarth and she was about as far away from mythical status as he was. Jaime refused to shake the feeling that she was special, though, even if it was just the memory of her astonishing eyes that had kept his drug fuelled, hyper realistic dreams from descending into the night terrors of survivors guilt.

She had saved his life, guided by the gods or fate or sheer dumb luck, and he was well aware of the debt to be paid. It was said Lannisters always paid their debts, no matter how big or small. But with two and a half decades fighting to keep one monarch after another in power there wasn't much he could do to help keep her godsforsaken ancient space ship running.

Even if Brienne had bought it some years prior to the last Westerosi war, the Sapphire class vessel would have been one of the last of its kind patrolling the skies, outpaced and outmanoeuvred by the Valyrians that came after. But, to Jaime's great surprise and even greater relief, it had no trouble holding orbit now they had escaped the cloying, poisonous atmosphere, large viewing platforms occupying the starboard side of the upper deck allowing him to watch everything he had once held dear burn from a safe distance. He just hoped his brother had been high enough up the political ladder to have been whisked off world in time. Tyrion could also have been drunk in a bunker somewhere, Jaime tried to rationalise, so caught up in his thoughts that he nearly didn't hear the statuesque captain entering the room.

"How are you recovering, Colonel?" she asked politely, crossing the room in three long strides like she was on a mission only to end up standing awkwardly by his side, her arms crossing over her chest. There was no need for her to walk around armed on the ship, but there was still a visible gun strapped to Brienne's thigh and, Jaime guessed, probably a few more hidden beneath her clothes just to be on the safe side.

"Your doctor patched me up as best he could, Cap," he shot her his most blinding smile, the one that got him in and out of many a tight spot in the past, and was pleased to see a slight flush rising to her cheeks. Not even the kindest soul would have described her as attractive, and he was far from kind, and yet, he couldn't stop staring up at her, waiting for another chance to gaze into her eyes.

"He couldn't grow back my hand, of course," he continued, no longer wanting to watch the swirling clouds far below them turn from grey to black when she was right there, giving him a chance for human interaction. "But the battle of Highgarden was three years ago and-"

"You fought at Highgarden, too?"

He nodded, instantly intrigued to find they had something in common. "I'm guessing you haven't always been interested in deep space exploration, then."

"Presidential defence for Renly Baratheon," she replied, a slight tremor running through her words. "Before...before..."

"Everything went to the seven hells?" he offered, the retort sounding glib and grating at the same time. "At least with that kind of training you'll never have any trouble out here. Elite presidential defence teams used to be handpicked from the best and brightest, and from that Oathkeeper revolver you're packing I'm guessing you weren't employed for your feminine wiles."

"Don't you dare even think to-" she hissed, storms picking up speed in the depths of her eyes as she turned to glare down at him. "We can drop you off anywhere you want, Colonel, but you cannot-"

"Jaime," he replied automatically, no longer needing to be defined by a rank given to him by an all but forgotten military force. "My name is Jaime. And, before you ask, I wasn't employed for my _wiles_ either."

"I _didn't_."

"I know. But you were thinking it."

"I did no such thing." She shook her head, her jaw tight, looking like she wanted nothing more than to drag him to the nearest cargo hold and leave him there until they found the 'anywhere' he wanted to be, though he hadn't any great riches hidden off world and no friends to welcome him home with open arms, either. Maybe he really would have to pay off his debt to the Captain by turning his remaining hand to piracy. If he was half as terrifyingly good as she looked in a similar role maybe he'd even stand a chance in succeeding.

And if he hadn't been dead to rights just days ago, and coming to terms with the loss of his military family, Jaime might have had the energy to accept the spike of arousal coursing through his veins at the thought of them working together. It would be later, much later, when they were hundreds of light years away from his former home that he would accept which parts of him had no problem with the idea of serving diligently under the Brienne's command.

"Do you think anyone survived down there? My brother was-"

"I think," Brienne cut him off, the change of subject not completely diffusing her irritation from his earlier jibe. "No, I'm certain they did."

"You couldn't possibly know that for sure. Not unless you had someone on the ground feeding you information."

She shot him an unreadable look. "I don't mean the people who actually meant something to me or y-you or any of my crew. They didn't have the option to board a luxury battleship at the first warning sign all this shit was coming. They didn't have to smell their own skin burning off their bones or wait for the radiation to kill what was left of their family so slowly it was worse than what the initial blast brought."

"You've seen this happen before." It wasn't a question although even his cynical, battle broken mind still couldn't quite believe that all this had happened before, albeit on a different planet. He had thought himself well travelled but there hadn't been much for a Colonel of the Westerlands beyond the seven inner planets and the outlying wilds, the asteroid wall separating them from the rest of the universe keeping out everyone but the most celebrated pilots.

"Pentos Galaxy. About fifteen years ago. My father was a minister there when I was a child." The prayer that escaped her frowning lips was so quiet Jaime almost thought he'd imagined it. "The few who managed to escape the ground went to their graves believing it was all a punishment from an angry Queen two millennia after she ruled. If she even existed in the first place."

He let go of a few choice phrases, cursing whatever and whomever he could think of in the moment; gods, men and beasts though he doubted if anyone heard him they'd be able to make any of this better.

"The Gods wouldn't let something as awful as this happen once, never mind twice," Brienne told him as she furiously typed out a reply to a message on her buzzing communications device. "I'm surprised someone like you still believes."

"Old habits," he said, though the irony of a minister's daughter questioning his belief system was not lost on him. "History and religion help make up a rounded education, as my father used to say. The septons at school hated us swearing so we learnt all the worst ones first."

"Of course," she drawled, though her next words were quieter, gentler. "I'm sorry about your father."

"Don't be," Jaime promised. "It happened years ago and he wasn't really much of a parent to begin with."

They stared at each other for too long to be entirely appropriate, Jaime forcibly ignoring how his heart rate doubled in the second it took Brienne to worry along her lower lip. "Did you really not take your meds this morning?" she eventually asked.

"Just the sleeping pills. I had enough nightmares from taking them after the docs pulled me out of Highgarden."

She nodded as if in understanding, glancing back at the device in her hand. "Dr Tarly says that if you don't want to sleep that's fine but I...I shouldn't be letting you overexert yourself just yet."

Jaime raised an eyebrow. "And when exactly _can_ you overexert me?"

"How should I know that?" she huffed as the clumsy attempt at flirtation fell between them like a lead balloon, another old habit he hadn't yet broken. "I trained as an engineer not a doctor."

"And yet you ended up on a bodyguard on an elite task force."

She sighed. "That's a long story but I promise you, Jaime, I'm much better with machinery than people."

"You have an entire crew who would say otherwise."

"That's because they are good people."

He couldn't disagree. From the retired sailor acting as her navigator, the safety of his adopted teenage daughters seeming to be his primary reason for being on board, to the young men and women, who must have escaped the deadly draft by days or found a way to avoid it, running the kitchens, med bay and engineering hanger there wasn't a single soul on board he'd spoken to who had openly judged the few Lannister men Brienne had managed to save even if their first mate had died in the process.

"I think you're underestimating what a captain brings to the equation. They have to trust you or there's no point any of you being up here."

"They trust the mission," she shrugged. "And I'm not the one who set the mission. The man who did promised we'd find them a safe home so that's what we'll do."

Jaime nodded to her thigh. "Oathkeeper."

"If I told you my other guns were Heartsbane and Blackfyre classes you might not be so quick to say that," she countered.

"I don't think that changes anything."

"You wouldn't say that if you knew me."

"I would be willing to put in the effort needed if you wouldn't mind having me on board a little longer." He glanced up at her from beneath gilded eyelashes, her cheeks flushed and blue blue eyes wide. "And which other ship in the depths of space has not one but two Highgarden survivors amongst its ranks?"

"Somebody out there might, though I'll admit it's unlikely,"she mumbled in what he hoped was agreement. Jaime decided not to press the matter any further.

"So where do we go next, Cap? The Free Cities Alliance? The Valyrian Belt? Pentos Galaxy?"

"I think...I think I'd rather stay here. For now."

It sounded like a good plan so he decided to stay, too. For now.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
